Collecting Praktica Cameras Part Two The early L series Cameras.
- Kamera Ostalgie
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
After the Nova series of cameras, for 1970 to herald in the exciting new decade, Pentacon came up with a completely new series of cameras, the L series. This was a radical new design, the body was slightly smaller, with very square lines, the cloth horizontal focal plane shutter was dropped in favour of an all new metal vertical focal plane shutter. This was a total re design, it was like Ford going from the 105E Anglia to the Mk1 Escort! The few bits that were carry overs were the M 42 screw mount and the horrible PL quick load system from the PL Nova I, which most people, myself included find more difficult to use than the old Nova system.
The first L series Praktica for 1970 was the Praktica L. (Production started December 1969) A simple camera, with no light meter, shutter speeds were B, 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000! The Praktica L had a fixed accessory shoe on top of the prism incorporating a X synchronised contact or hot shoe. This would be my choice, a simple robust seat of the pants camera, basic, rugged and very little to go wrong.
Introduced along side the Praktica L was the Praktica LLC, which had a TTL light metering system which used electrical contacts on the lens which transmitted what aperture the lens was set at to the camera! Which was a world away from the L and using the sunny 16 exposure rule! Now this system used a large Varta V21 PX battery which had the relatively high voltage of 4.5 volts, no button cell here, this was a large battery, with a length of 49.9 mm and a diameter of 16.8mm.
This was as far as I'm aware, the first Praktica with a delayed action shutter release.
There was a gap of a couple of years, then in 1972 Praktica brought out their next model of the L series, the Praktica LTL. This sort of went back in time a little and used the stopped down version of metering system that actually came from the old Praktica Super TL of the late 60's! Not sure why they went back in time, maybe cost reasonings ? Anyway this meter used the more popular V625 also known as the PX625.
It was available with or without a delayed shutter release, I think fitting one was an optional extra at the time. other variations were the style of the pentaprism hood, some had the Pentacon tower logo engraved onto the front face of the prism some did not, also there were two sizes of shutter release buttons! Large or small!
This example has the optional extra delayed shutter release timer and the smaller of the two shutter release buttons.
Then in 1973 came another in the first L series of cameras, the Praktica L1B, or just the Praktica LB! This in effect replaced the Praktica Nova 1B which up until 1973 was soldiering on, alongside the newer L series cameras. It is the last model of the initial L series cameras of 1969 to 1973. It again went back in time in a way, being fitted with an uncoupled selenium light meter. No battery needed here at all !
You can see from the pictures above and below how the new L series was a totally different camera to the Nova series that it gradually replaced. To me the L series looks far more modern with its straight lines and squared off corners. I much prefer the older Praktica shape, but having said that time has proved the L series to be better cameras in most respects. But to me these are too 'modern'!
However if I was a young person starting to collect film cameras today I would collect these later models. The fact that you can find these on eBay right now in working order for the price of a film is crazy, they are currently dirt cheap, there are lots of different variations that collectors love and they are very useable and come with decent optics, all of them! Really you would be daft not to collect these at this present time.
The only L series I own is the 1972 Praktica LTL so lets have a close look at it. The major difference is the shutter.
This shutter, time has proved to be a bit more durable than the cloth shutter of the Nova, with luck you can buy one today and still use it without it being serviced, where as with the older cloth shutters most will need a service or a repair to get them useable once more.
There is usually one thing about a camera that you don't like, maybe not enough to stop you buying it, or using it, but just a little niggle that makes you chunter to yourself, why did they do this or that. On this camera it is the improved film loading system. Bluntly these cameras are a pain in the arse to load with film. I chuckled to myself the other day, I had just read another bloggers post on the camera saying how it took him three attempts to load it. I had just loaded mine with a new film, and guess what, I had just had three goes at loading the film before I was happy with it! My screw thread Leica was a little fiddly to load, but compared to the Praktica LTL it was a piece of cake.
The idea is you just pull the film out, slide it under the little rectangle with a screw in it, and pull the film along until it lines up with the green mark, simple you are thinking....
.....until you start doing it. The problem is as you try and slide the film under the rectangular bit it puckers down and sets the film off at a slight angle! You have to try and make sure that your film still sits straight in line with the film guide instead of riding up towards the top of the camera out of parallel to the film guide lines.
Why, I don't know, is modern film of a different thickness? I'm not sure, but this is not a quick load design for me. Once you manage to get the film under the rectangle and in a sprocket hole and still straight, make sure the wire rod is flat as in the pic above and not sticking up! Shut the back down, say a little prayer and just hope. If you can hear the film clicking when you first wind on, or the wind on lever feels tight, you need to try loading it again or your film may jam or the sprocket holes tear!
Looking at the picture below, it looks quick and easy, but in practise getting your film like the picture below without it puckering or running out of parallel is a nightmare! Be warned. Once you have bossed it, maybe by trying to load it with a scrap film a few times until it becomes easy, its one of the best cameras you will ever use, but until you crack the German quick load code, it will be one of the worst!
It looks quite easy, but believe me, getting the film under the little rectangular plate, which the Germans in their usual descriptive and imaginative prose they call the 'supporting piece' is as easy as playing the drums and firing a MG-42 machine gun at the same time. As you slide the film down under the supporting piece in the direction of the very helpful white arrow, the film puckers up and no longer sits parallel to the lines of the film guide, it heads off upwards towards the top of the camera, like it is trying to climb to the top of the Zugspitze. Getting the film to sit as illustrated in the handbook picture above is an art. An art that I don't have.
Anyway enough of the things I don't like, I do like this new shutter speed control! It's great!
The shutter speed dial is a much simpler design to the previous slow and fast speeds set up, so this is a great improvement over the Nova.
Also I like the new film frame counter that automatically re sets when you put in a new film. The film wind on lever and the shutter release are nicely positioned. I don't like the metering key tab thing, the ones where you just put slight pressure on the shutter release for the meter and depth of field are much easier to operate.
I think that having the shutter release, metering tab key and the self timer here just make the area look and feel cluttered. The original Praktica L looks much neater and stylish with just the shutter release there.
I'm lucky in that I have the original handbook for the Praktica LTL, so lets have a quick look in it.
It's quite a comprehensive little instruction book and not a bad read, well worth tracking one down if you can, but it may cost you more than the actual camera! We live in crazy times.
With this Praktica I also have the original guarantee card.
Which is very nice to have as a camera collector.
My particular camera has body number 041622, which is clearly shown on the camera body and the gaantee card. I rather like that !
373490 of the LTL were made between December 1970 and November 1975. So this example is relatively early and sold in February 1973.
Well, I hope this short post on the Praktica L series was of interest to you. It is currently loaded with some Ilford FP4 Plus. I'm trying out a 'new' Pentacon Auto 2.8 29mm lens that I have just bought. The LTL originally came with the Zeiss Tessar 2.8 50mm lens pictured in the first photograph. So fingers crossed and I will put the results in a future post.
If you get chance try out one of the Practica L series of cameras, they are nice cameras and will never be more of a bargain than they are at this present moment in time.
Take care,
Phil
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